Abstract

The fifteen groundbreaking essays contained in Monstrous adaptations: Generic and thematic mutations in horror film address the concept of adaptation in relation to horror cinema. Adaptation is not only a key cultural practice and strategy for filmmakers, but it is also a theme of major importance within horror cinema as a whole. Horror film s history is full of adaptations that have drawn from fiction or folklore, or that have assumed the shape of remakes of pre-existing films. However, the horror genre itself also abounds with its own myriad transformations and transmutations. This collection of essays many written by leading authorities in the discipline of cinema studies demonstrates the significance of the adaptative process in the theory, practice and thematics of horror film. The essays within this volume engage with an impressive range of horror texts, from the earliest silent horror films by Thomas Edison and Jean Epstein through to important contemporary phenomena, such as the western appropriation of Japanese horror motifs. Classic works by Alfred Hitchcock, David Cronenberg, and Abel Ferrara receive cutting-edge re-examination, as do unjustly neglected works by Mario Bava, Guillermo del Toro and Stan Brakhage. The collection also offers significant insights into cinematic adaptations of horror literature by H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and Clive Barker, as do mythical figures such as the Gorgon and some of the most pervasive urban legends.